Spicy Pork Meatballs and Fennel Tomato Sauce

These meatballs are great - the pickled peppers give them a unique spicy flavor - and the sauce goes really well with them. The fennel gives it a little sweetness and not too strong of an anise flavor. I have lots of leftover meatballs, so I plan to make a meatball sub for dinner tomorrow. You could also just serve them with toothpicks as an hors d'oeuvre.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

2 lb ground pork shoulder

2 cups bread, cut into 1/4" cubes

2 tbsp chopped fennel fronds

2 cloves of garlic, mashed into a paste

10 pickled pepper slices, minced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tbsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

Porchetta Pork Chops

 

I was away for a wedding this weekend - congratulations, Chip and Siobhan! - and wasn't doing any cooking, so yesterday I was anxious to make dinner. I saw this recipe on the Times for pork chops and thought it sounded great. I also picked up some avocado squash at the Union Square Market. I'd never had avocado squash it before but the sign said it was like zucchini only smoother and more buttery and holds up better on the grill. Yum! Both were great. The pork chops have a wonderful flavor with the rosemary, fennel, lemon, and garlic. Jamie loved them. The squash was perfect just tossed with olive oil, salt, garlic, and pepper and thrown under the broiler.

I also grabbed some shishito peppers for an hors d'oeuvre.